Find The Way Home
by Just A Writer For Now
Summary: Matt, Jackie and Inez have been coping with living in Cyberspace as well as they can, but Ledge has something up his sleeve that the Earthlies would never have suspected. The connection was reconstructed and now a battle begins, bigger than ever before. Sequel to Return to Cyberspace.
1. The End Was Not The End

**Hello All! I know this is really, really, really late, but I decided to write a sequel to my original story. Of course, I had to reread the entire first story, get embarrassed by my old writing, but then encouraged by all the reviews, so without further adieu, I present to you Book 2 in The After-years of Cyberchase.**

**Disclaimer-I don't own Cyberchase, but that would be really cool because I would have kept it going so I wouldn't have almost failed calculus. Anyways, kudos to PBS for owning Cyberchase and now, for the feature presentation.**

It was the third day in a row Coop hadn't come back and Slider was officially worried.

"I just think he's in trouble," Slider said, fiddling with a tube of wires at his workbench. Jackie had come to Radopolis on her day off and was listening to Slider's concerns. It had been almost a year since "the lock-down" as Inez called it, and things in Cyberspace were running smoothly.

"When was he supposed to come back from Tikiville?" she asked, watching Slider push the wires aside and pull out a skateboard instead.

"Three days ago. He hasn't called or anything…if Hacker hadn't been under control I'd suspect Chaos, but as it is…" Hacker had been permanently detained by a force field around the Northern Frontier. With Ledge gone and Hacker under control, Cyberspace was almost back to normal.

"Don't you think you should go after him?" Jackie was trying to pull her hair into some semblance of order but was failing. "I mean, something serious could have happened to him."

"Yeah…" Slider wouldn't look at her. Jackie made a face behind his back. It was when he got like this that she wanted to throw something at him. _Why do I even offer advice if he's not going to take it? _She thought, trying to catch his eye.

"Well, what are we waiting for?"

Slider turned to her. "Look, I just…when Dad left back when I was younger, I thought he'd really left. You know. For good. So now I just wonder if he actually left this time."

"Or," Jackie said, rolling her eyes. "Your father is in trouble and you should go help him. Last time, he didn't just _leave_, he was hiding because of magnetite poisoning. So, you should _go and help him_." She wondered if Inez ever had problems getting Matt to do something. But they probably never ran into this problem because they were officially "together" and it was sickening. Take today for instance. Instead of everyone meeting up at Slider's garage, Matt and Inez decided to take a nice long day out alone in Solaria, having a fun day swimming and hanging out on the beach. It frustrated Jackie to no end when they did that, but she was dealing with it by trying to prompt Slider into searching for his dad instead of worrying about his problems.

"Come on," she said again, "Besides, you promised me a ride in your racer once it was tuned up. Kill two birds with one stone. Please?"

"Are you that desperate for something to do?" Slider said, snapping out of his worries for just a minute.

"Yes. And you need to look for Coop instead of sitting around in your garage and moping." She finally managed to twist her hair into a bun.

"Fine," Slider said. "Let's go."

* * *

It was an unusually chilly day on Solaria. Not cold as in winter cold, but cold as in autumn is almost here cold. And it was never like that in Solaria.

"I wonder if the Sunesphere needs a tune-up," Matt commented, as he stretched out on his towel next to Inez, who was eating a popsicle.

"It probably just decided that the atmosphere in Solaria needed to cool down before it overheats. You remember what Ollie said…sometimes all the heat will build up in the receptacle, causing a shortage to build up and that they built a negative reaction into it—" Inez had started going to the CyberUniversity and was using most of her conversations with Matt to impart some form of knowledge, but he cut her off for once.

"Relax, Nezzie. It's our day off from everything. Let's just have fun."

"But I am having fun."

"I know you are." he smiled at her, letting her know that everything was all right. In the past year they'd grown closer than ever before, and Matt was so happy to have her right next to him chattering away like she never used to.

"I wonder what Jackie's doing today," Inez commented, never for an instance forgetting her other friend.

"She said something about hanging out with Slider, last I checked," Matt said, lazily.

A cool wind fluttered down from the mountaintop and Inez shivered.

"Hey, my jacket's in the bag if you're cold," Matt said, reaching for the bag, but as he handed Inez the oversized sweatshirt, the Squak pad fell out, beeping violently.

It was Jackie. Matt had seen her just the other day and she'd been as normal as can be. But now her face had become worried; her eyes were wide and she was biting her bottom lip.

"Look Matt," she started, "This is an emergency. You need to get to Control Central right away."

Matt was going to crack a joke about how she thought every time there was a chunk of flotsam hitting Control Central was an emergency, but then he realized she was serious.

"What is it?"

"It's about the connection to the real world."

"What?" Inez crawled over from where she'd been sitting and edged in on the call from Jackie. "What about the connection to the real world. Is it back?" Out of all three of them, Inez had suffered the most from the loss of connection. She'd been the youngest, and the one with the closest family. Being separated from them forever had been tough on her. She was the only one who still hoped that there was a connection to be regained.

"Well, kind of," Jackie said, nervously. "You see, there is an opening to our world."

"That's great!" Matt said, enthusiastically. "Right?"

"But you see," Jackie continued, as if Matt hadn't said anything at all. "Motherboard is pretty sure that Ledge made it."

"You mean he's back?" Inez asked.

"We're not sure. And there's another thing. But you should get back to Control Central before we talk about it."

"What is it?" Inez asked. She'd gripped Matt's hand now, and he wasn't sure if she was excited that there was a connection between the real world and Cyberspace or if she was afraid that Ledge might be back, ready to wreak havoc.

"We'll show you when you get here," Jackie wouldn't budge, no matter how much they protested. "Just come back as quick as you can."

**Well, I know it's a bit short, and there isn't much action, but even though I have most of the story planned out in my head, I couldn't think of a very satisfying opening, so this is it for now. :D Have a great day! (Oh, and I remember someone asking if Buzz and Delete would be in the last story. Obviously they weren't, but I definitely have plans for them in this one. Muahahaha.)**


	2. Falling Through Wormholes

**Hello! I have successfully overcome Writer's Block...well, I can dream, can't I? Thanks to everyone who reviewed; I'm really excited too. (Hopefully I keep y'all entertained enough.) Anyways...See you at the bottom!**

* * *

Motherboard rarely used portals anymore, since Cyberspace had been deemed safe. They'd drained her power supply every time she used them, so Dr. Marbles had finally ordered the portal creating to stop unless it was an emergency. Even though Jackie had looked pretty bothered on the Squak, it must not have been too big of an emergency because the only way back was for Matt and Inez to take the ferry that had brought them to Solaria. The ferry was a new creation—a brainchild of Slider and Motherboard—free transportation to anywhere in Cyberspace. Every day, the barge-like cyber coupe flew from site to site, picking up cyborgs to take them to whatever site they needed to go to. Since Matt and Inez had planned a quiet date together in Solaria, they'd taken the ferry by themselves in the early morning when no one was aboard.

It was later in the afternoon when they boarded the ferry to head back to Control Central. The deck only had a few people, all sitting in separate corners. Matt motioned to a small bench, far away from the other passengers.

"What do you think is going on?" Inez said, breaking the silence that had permeated between them while they'd put on t-shirts over their bathing suits and packed up their gear to head back home. Control Central was their home now. When the trio had rebanded after spending months apart from each other, they had all decided to stay at Control Central with Dr. Marbles and Digit. Jackie was the only one who worked there; she helped the Doc and Didge with the maintenance for Motherboard. Inez had taken the opportunity to continue going to school and Matt was, at present, replacing Inez at the Cybrary.

"I'm not sure," Matt said, "I mean, Jackie seemed upset, but I thought the connection was gone forever."

"Me, too," Inez replied distantly, staring into the empty space surrounding the ferry. "But, I mean, if it comes back…"

Matt turned sharply to her. Her tone, wistful and longing, made him worry. She shouldn't get her hopes up; he'd be there for her when they came crashing down but nothing in Cyberspace was worse than watching Inez lose everything. It had already happened once and he hadn't been there; none of them had been there for each other. It wasn't going to happen again. He didn't want any of it to happen again.

"Inez," he began, putting his hand on her knee. She faced him and the familiar sensation of locking gazes washed over them.

"What?"

"I…It's just…" Matt couldn't finish what he was going to say. It was never easy. It had taken a kidnapping and imminent Cyber-destruction for him to admit his feelings for Inez. But Inez didn't seem to care that he was speechless. They sat on the stiff benches of the ferry, Matt's hand resting on Inez's knee and Inez leaning towards Matt.

_It doesn't matter what happens,_ Matt told himself, _We'll be here for each other this time. We have to be._

* * *

Slider looked at the dark hole in the ceiling. It was nothing like the portals Motherboard used to send. They had been a swirling mass of pink and purple, like overly large electrons bouncing off of each other to create a wormhole between the two dimensions. This…this…appearance in Control Central was not an original portal, but it did have some form of transportation quality. Because he and Jackie had fallen through it.

They had been searching for Coop. When they'd landed in Tikiville, Jackie had slipped into the house that Creech lived in and, after pulling some strings to meet the leader of Tikiville, had asked if Coop was still working on the cybersite.

"Not that I know of," the girl had said, clutching a fistful of blue hair. She looked stressed to Jackie. There were dark circles under the younger girl's eyes and her shoulders were dropping in defeat. "He left just a few days ago. Hasn't Slider heard from him?"

Jackie had shaken her head. This was bad, this was so bad. She'd thought that if they'd just looked for Coop they'd find him within a few hours. Coop was a Radster, and Radsters could be a little unreliable, a little too laid back. She'd thought that maybe he'd run into a little bit of trouble—engine trouble, a broken Squak pad or maybe a delay in repairs—but after combing the route to Tikiville, Jackie and Slider had found nothing. Landing on the humid, tropical site had only added to Slider's worries. He'd gone to see where his father had been working, to see if maybe there had been a trace as to where he had been.

"I mean, he came to me and told me that he'd fixed the atmospherical reactor and said he was heading back home. I thanked him for everything he'd done, he left…It was another simple business transaction, you know?"

Jackie had nodded, not entirely paying attention. "Are you all right Creech?"

Creech had started. "What? Aren't you looking for Coop? What've I got to do with this?"

"You just look really tired. And I promised Slider I'd wait here for him to come back. And I haven't spoken to you in forever." Jackie had never clicked with Creech as Inez had—the two younger girls had been friends from the moment of the Big Kahuna Race. But Jackie still liked Creech, and there was something off about the usually bright, cheerful young Tiki-borg.

"Well, if you have to ask, it's just been a really rough year for Tikiville. Hasn't Slider mentioned all the repairs we've needed? It's been ridiculous, everything that's gone wrong. And the Tiki-borgs…I don't know if it's my imagination or not, but ever since Ledge disappeared and Hacker was contained, they've seemed very uneasy. We've had so many things brought to the Council. Thefts, robberies, fights…Tikiville didn't use to be like this. It's taking so much to keep everyone in line and this site from disintegrating into pure chaos."

Jackie hadn't been badly worried up until this point. But at that word, chaos, her stomach started boiling nervously. She hadn't felt like this since last year. Chaos was supposed to have left. For good. Ledge was in their world, hopefully caught by the authorities. Hacker was detained in the Northern Frontier by an unbreakable force field. Cyborgs were supposed to be programmed for good, not evil. Hacker and Ledge had been the anomalies.

"My mother told me that when there is no personification of evil, people will find evil within themselves," Creech had said, reverting back to the loquacious young teenager for just a second.

The door of the room they were standing in creaked open. Creech had flinched, the worried Tiki-leader returning to her features. Jackie stayed still, because she knew it was Slider.

"Jacks. You have to see this. Now." Jackie had obeyed instantly. Her and Slider may not have shared the same kind of bond that their other two friends did, but there was an understanding between the Cyborg and the often-dramatic Earth girl.

Slider was running hard and Jackie was pushing herself to keep up with him. They were headed to the heart of Tikiville. Every Cybersite had a heart, an area where everything was controlled. The atmosphere, the weather, the appearance, everything. Jackie had never fully understood it; she had lived on Earth, a physical planet in the world she called reality. But this was different. It was also the world that Slider called reality, so he knew exactly where he was going, what he was doing and didn't feel as though there was anything odd about it.

It was the thing that kept Slider and Jackie from becoming closer. It never failed to come up that they were entirely different—he was a Cyborg, she was a human. There was a small wall between the two because they could not bridge this gap of difference.

Slider thought of it often; not just between him and Jackie, but amongst the entire Cybersquad. He felt sorry for them, trapped in a world that they never planned to be a part of, but there were days he could never understand them. He shook the thought out of his head, though, as he neared the cave with the heart of Tikiville. He had let Jackie catch up to him. The two stood there, panting, at the mouth of the cave, Slider bracing himself to tell Jackie what was going on and Jackie wondering why Slider looked so nervous all of the sudden.

"Look, Jackie," Slider had reached out and taken her hand. "There's something in there. Something that's….bad."

"What do you mean?"

"There's something there. Just. You have to see."

They had walked in, still holding hands. Down a few winding corridors of the cave led to the room that controlled it all. Only there was not room.

There wasn't anything.

"What is that?" Jackie's grip had tightened on Slider's hand. He didn't blame her. There was no control room anymore. There was only a darkness, a black hole of nothing pulsing before them with a dangerous heat that smelled of smoke and electricity.

"I don't know. But it shouldn't be there."

"We need to turn around," Jackie had said, trying to take a step back. There was a pull though, from the darkness. A gravity that pulled the pair to the hole. And before they knew it, they had stepped into the hole. Seconds later, they had fallen into the main room of Control Central.

That was when Jackie had called Matt. Not because an eerie substitution of portals had emerged in Cyberspace. No, because as Jackie and Slider had fallen through the darkness, they had caught a glimpse of other openings, other ways to escape this new portal.

One of the openings was in Jackie's old room back on Earth.

Another had been a cramped room Jackie and Slider had never seen before. But Ledge had been sitting inside it, talking with a woman.

Ledge had waved to Slider and Jackie as he saw them fall through.

* * *

**Ta da! Now it gets exciting. I also changed all the beautiful spelling errors. *shakes grammar nazi head in shame* **


End file.
